Trump-less Debate Still Rocks for Fox News

Fox News Channel's Donald Trump-less GOP debate was still the second-highest-rated telecast in the history of the news network after the August debate, outrating all Thursday night shows, broadcast or cable.

Trump had said he would be interested to see how the ratings were given his absence.

According to Nielsen, there were 12.5 million total viewers watching the debate, and 3.5 million viewers in the key 25-54 news demo.

According to Nielsen Social, the debate was the top event on Twitter with 1.073 million tweets, topping even American Idol on Fox and the always popular WWE.